The Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom)
has started manufacturing mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies, using plutonium
taken from dismantled nuclear weapons. Bulat Nigmatullin, deputy minister
of Minatom, told Nucleonics Week that Minatom's Research Institute of
Nuclear Reactors in Dimitrovgrad has processed weapons-grade Pu and
used it to manufacture some tens of kilogrammes of MOX. A MOX fuel assembly,
to be used in the BN-600 type fast reactor (at Beloyarsk NPP), was made,
Nigmatullin said. The MOX fuel will also be used in the Research Institute
of Nuclear Reactors' 60 MW fast breeder research reactor.